Fibre boosts pay-TV subs in Portugal to 3.7m

The number of pay-TV subscribers in Portugal reached 3.7 million in the first quarter of 2017, a growth of 135,000 subscribers (3.8 per cent) year-on-year.

According to the National Communications Authority (Anacom), the growth is mainly due to the increased popularity of fibre optic-based offers, which saw subscriber numbers rise by 6.3 per cent on the previous quarter, and by 24.9 per cent on Q1 2016.

However, cable still remains the dominant distribution technology with 36.6 per cent of total pay-TV accesses, followed by fibre with 30.4 per cent, xDSL with 17.4 per cent and satellite/DTH with 15.6 per cent.

NOS Group is the market leader, with 43.5 per cent of overall pay-TV subscribers, followed by Meo (Portugal Telecom) with 38.4 per cent, Vodafone Portugal with 13.2 per cent and Nowo (former Cabovisao) with 4.8 per cent.

Continuing the trend from the previous quarters, Vodafone Portugal was the operator that most increased its market share.

Revenues from pay-TV services in Portugal (stand-alone or bundled as a package) amounted to €470 million, up by 4.9 per cent on the same period in 2016.

Around 15.8 per cent of pay-TV households had access to premium channels (-2 per cent), with 78.3 per cent receiving over 80 channels.

The total number of subscribers to bundled packages reached 3.55 million, 35,000 more than in Q4 2016.